


Maybe I Didn't Step On The Cat

by Katsura Tsuruya (Katsura_Tsuruya)



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captivity, Cosplay, Dubious Science, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/F, Forced Masturbation (kind of), Hypnotism, Masturbation, Mildly Dubious Consent, Partial Mind Control, Piano, Sexy Times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-05 13:52:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17326229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katsura_Tsuruya/pseuds/Katsura%20Tsuruya
Summary: Kaede Akamatsu had killed Rantaro Amami, and gone to her execution with her head held high.So why was she still alive? Why was she being held, as best she could guess, beneath the dorms?And what did her blue-haired captor want from her...?





	1. Death Warp

Kaede woke with a sputter. This, itself, was surprising; she'd assumed that that was – to put it delicately – off the table indefinitely. For a split second, she wondered if she'd had some horrible dream, but running her fingers along her throat for a moment put that bit of speculation to rest fast. Bandaged, tender to the touch, and soaking through the bandages a little...

… Her breathing definitely didn't sound right, either. Rattling, high-pitched... The pianist turned onto her side, sputtering a little again – and this time, she was treated to a blood clot escaping from her mouth.

 _Oh_ , she thought, a little distantly. _Hope that's not permanent._

Taking another breath, she felt herself becoming a little less hazy, a little more aware – which also meant finding out her tongue hurt, but she'd take it. _I must've bit it one of the times I got pulled up... that'd explain the blood clot, too. Better than a crushed windpipe... I think._ She took a slightly deeper breath, and was greeted this time with a slightly more normal breathing sound – and tremendous relief.

 _Maybe I should... say something?_ “Hello?” she called, though she wasn't sure what she was expecting. After a moment's thought, she added, “Monokuma?”

But nobody came. After waiting a few moments for certainty's sake, Kaede pulled herself up and started to explore her new surroundings. They reminded her of the dorms, though a little nicer and less spartan... and large, at that – this would've been easily the size of four of the rooms. Indeed, the faint curve gave her the distinct sense this _would've_ been what it looked like, were four of the rooms put together.

Kaede rubbed at her eyes, trying to make sense of the room a little more. A large stepladder... a dresser... an X-cross with handcuffs hanging from the upper manacles... a plain black table –

 _Wait, what?_ Kaede's gaze tracked slowly back to the X-cross. _Okaaaay..._ _Is this a regular dungeon, or a sex dungeon?_ _No. I'm just going to table that one for now. I can get back to that after I... figure out anything else._

She rubbed at her bandaged throat again, unable to quite keep herself from touching it; the pain was just present enough, just enough of a constant distraction, as to be difficult to ignore. “It's not that I'm mad I'm not dead, but I _really_ want you to show yourself!” she called, as she continued to look around. A fridge... how long had she been out? She hadn't noticed a feeding tube or a drip, or anything like that, so it couldn't be _too_ long...

Opening the fridge, Kaede found herself greeted with ginger tea, cans of fake alcohol, and... suspiciously large, face-shaped, individually-wrapped gyoza. Unwrapping one of the gyoza, Kaede took an experimental bite, and for a moment, the world felt something like normal.

It didn't last. The curry flavor caught her more than a little off guard, prompting a bit more sputtering, but... it wasn't worth taking the risk that her lightheadedness was from lack of air alone, not knowing how long she'd been out. She began to slowly pull it apart; biting down made it take so much longer to eat, making the flavor even more overwhelming and uncomfortable. It worked, though not as well as she'd hoped; sitting in the refrigerator for who knows how long had steeped the outer layer in the curry flavor pretty completely.

She needed something to get rid of the taste, fast, but... the options there weren't great either. Weighing between two... distinctly unpalatable drinks, she settled for washing it down with the fake alcohol. Her eyes scrunched up at the taste – somehow incredibly sweet and incredibly bitter all at once, without actually becoming bittersweet. Something about the way it hit her damaged throat wasn't exactly helping, either; it didn't quite have the sting of rubbing alcohol on a wound, but the sensation made her think of nails on a chalkboard, somehow.

She paced the room once, twice – brow furrowing. She was more certain than ever that there was a mastermind here... she just needed to think about how she got here, why she was spared... who could've done this.

The curve of the room suggested the same shape as four dorms chained together. _That's a good start_ , she thought to herself. She momentarily thought about whether the orientation of the room mattered, but no – that wouldn't be something she could discern without a window, and she had none.

Presumably, then, she'd be... under the dorms. This helped with _where_ , at least, but not necessarily with _who_... no, wait – that would suggest someone with a bottom dorm, maybe? It'd be hard to hide a room like this _and_ make it accessible to only you if you were on the top. Kaede immediately eliminated half the class from her considerations, at least for the moment; new information might later prove her wrong, of course, but...

… where did that leave her? It couldn't be herself, and it couldn't be Rantaro... which left her with six candidates. Miu, Tsumugi, Kirumi, Shuichi, Korekiyo, and Ryoma...

Her blood ran cold for a moment at the thought of Shuichi imprisoning her. Had their closeness been a lie? … No – she'd chosen to believe in him. She scratched him off her list, too; the looks he'd given her at the class trial felt... impossible to fake.

Miu... it'd explain the Exisals, she thought to herself, a little grimly. And the X-cross. Something about the conclusion didn't feel right, but she'd stick a flag in that for now and move back to it. Korekiyo...? No, even if he were a mastermind, something about that didn't sit right. He wouldn't leave a room with such spartan décor. She hadn't even needed to have a sit-down chat with him before he started half-hissing about beauty.

From fifteen to four in two minutes. _Not bad_ , Kaede thought to herself. _If only I'd been this on the ball when I was planning..._ Thoughts of being 'on the ball' turned a little grim, though, and she took a long, hard sit on the bed before running through the last three candidates. It felt good to get her brain going again; the time for disorientation had passed her by.

She started vocalizing the thoughts... if only to hear a human voice. This desolate little chamber's acoustics weren't too kind; her voice felt small to her ears. “All right... Kirumi, Tsumugi, or Ryoma,” she reflected aloud. Her gaze turned to the stepladder she'd seen before. At first, she found herself considering Ryoma as a possibility... but the longer she looked at it, the same object that had made her think of him made her certain it couldn't be him.

Getting up and walking over to the ladder, Kaede squatted down. “All right – at my height, I can step about this high...” She lifted one leg. The ladder felt like it was built for someone just a little taller than Kaede, in comparison to her stride. “Ryoma'd be like... half that, I think? … I'll give him sixty percent, just to be safe...” Lifting her leg accordingly, she tried to get up onto the ladder. No dice. Even giving him a little more extra, she still couldn't quite get her leg up onto the first rung.

“Okay, this ladder is definitely not for Ryoma,” she affirmed to herself. “Needing to use a ladder to use a ladder would be a little ridiculous... and having to full-on jump up a ladder seems kind of crazy, too.” Letting out a long, slow sigh, she sat down on the floor, leaning her back against the wall. “So that's just... Kirumi or Tsumugi, huh? – Oh, and Miu...”

Kaede looked at the X-cross again, and gave this situation some real thought. “... Well, okay, I could have done a lot worse here, as far as waking up in someone's weird dungeon goes,” she reflected aloud. “Miu's personality is pretty bad, but she's got a nice body... Tsumugi's probably really attentive, and Kirumi seems like she's good at everything she does...” _Grr... no! Focus, Kaede! This is really weird and you should figure out a way out before it gets way weirder!_

How could she eliminate someone...? She looked down at the floor, catching a glimpse of her knees... and nodded to herself. Well – this was worth a shot.

Practically prostrating herself on the floor, Kaede half-cried, “Miu! I submit! Your genius and beauty have made me your prisoner! I'll do anything you want! I'll take off my shirt! I'll let you put me in a cow-print bikini and talk shit about my big, ugly udders!” She hoped there weren't any cameras in the floor below her, because she was definitely grimacing.

Ten seconds passed. Twenty. Thirty.

After about two minutes spent kneeling, Kaede sat up and concluded, “Yeah, Miu would've set an alarm to go off on that one. There's no way.”

Down to two... similar height, similar build, both meticulous enough to pull off this kind of thing... She started drumming her fingernails on her knee. Tsumugi or Kirumi... Tsumugi or Kirumi...

Tsumugi... her poker face wasn't actually that good, was it? Kaede thought back to the time Rantaro did her nails... no, Tsumugi hadn't been able to conceal her frustration then...

Kirumi, though – Kirumi always stuck to the background, never drew too much attention to herself. Always ready to help – precise, meticulous... She'd taken to the “unfamiliar” layout of the school all too well, too...

Kaede stood up, walking up to the ladder. “Kirumi!” she called, forcefully. “I'm awake and I'm in your weird dungeon! Come out and tell me what you want already!”

From off in the corner of the room, a faint rumbling began... a panel in the wall slid to one side, letting out a cloud of steam-like white smoke... and emerging oh-so-slowly from it came a figure with the distinct silhouette of Kirumi's maid uniform.

“I knew it!” Kaede exclaimed, unable to resist the urge to pump her fists in front of her. “I totally caught you! So, why are you doing...”

The figure looked up as the smoke started to clear, and... interrupted Kaede with a weak mumble of, “Yes... it's me, the true mastermind... Kirumi Tojo...!”

… and then collapsed in a heap in front of Kaede, her wig rolling off her distinctly purplish-red head. “POX... DIE...” came Tsumugi's voice, as she weakly clawed at the maid's uniform, eventually getting enough of it off to reveal a skintight, full-body swimsuit underneath – and starting to return to a skin color actually possessed by human beings.

Kaede stared dully ahead. All she managed for ten, maybe twenty seconds was a completely flat, “Really.” She had a thousand questions, but somehow, the display before her managed to shut down her brain so thoroughly that she couldn't give voice to any of them.

This gave Tsumugi more than enough time to pry herself off the ground, dust herself off, and kick the discarded clothes off to one side. “Anyway! Now that you've figured out that it's me, it's plain to see you're going to need to stay here for the rest of the game! You'll completely ruin this mode! We're nowhere near done – there's supposed to be at least three more murders, and...”

“Mode?” Kaede's mind reeled. Something felt like it stuck when she heard that word, like hitting a piano key with a grain of rice hiding underneath it. 'Murders' was obvious; 'mode' was weird.

“Don't worry about it!” Tsumugi insisted, starting to walk off to the side of the room a bit, only half paying attention to Kaede as she got her bearings. She walked to the refrigerator almost immediately, pulling out a cup of cold ginger tea and taking a long drink.

“... I'm worrying about it,” Kaede shot back, tone still a little flat. _Also, gross. How do you drink that?_ “Anyway – it's not that I'm not glad to be alive, but... how? Why?”

“Hm?” Tsumugi stopped her walk and glanced over, absently fluffing out her deep blue hair a bit. She met the question with the blandness of someone asked why it stopped raining. “Oh. You were only hanging for fifty seconds. It takes at least seven minutes to die of asphyxiation.”

“But... what about the spikes behind me?”

Tsumugi stopped herself, turning around to face Kaede and taking several steps toward her before answering in earnest. The cosplayer leaned in close, giving Kaede the tiniest whiff of ginger tea on her breath. Kaede's nose scrunched up reflexively in response – a look that didn't change a bit as Tsumugi's face lit up. “The keys below you collapsed into a trap door! It's too bad all the other ones didn't – but smashing a mascot in the keys next to you really sold everyone on how dead you are, so...”

 _Okay, right. Back out of relief. It's weird again._ “Why are you _doing_ this? Why... _any_ of this?” Kaede wanted to protest, to ask Tsumugi what brought her from dissociating until Kaede threatened to flip her skirt to, apparently, putting her in some weird underground prison dormitory dungeon. _On the other hand,_ she thought, _maybe that Tsumugi didn't really exist to begin with._

“Why?” Tsumugi's expression shifted – in an instant, her gaze was flat, hollow. “Don't you ever get bored of yourself? Don't you ever get scared that all your more interesting friends are going to leave you?” She took a half-step toward Kaede, now slightly inside her personal space even without leaning forward.

“Don't you ever wake up and think, 'I'm going to wake up old, and by that point my hobbies are just going to be a punchline?'” Another step, and her chest pressed against Kaede's. An undercurrent of desperation started to enter her voice. “Or maybe 'Now that we're graduating, no one's going to want to be around me, and I'm going to miss this time in my life so much that I'd rather be dead?' Wouldn't it be easier to drag all your friends into the cosplay swamp with you?”

Raising a finger almost as if to object to herself, she dropped her voice to a whisper and continued, “Or maybe you wake up and think, 'My life is so empty that I don't even like the things I like for myself anymore, only watching other people do them?'” That finger moved around to rest under Kaede's chin, tilting her gaze just slightly up.

Kaede began to notice the matched half-steps forward and back she and Tsumugi had been taking about now; she found herself backed to the wall, practically pressed there. The cosplayer had started to move her head past Kaede's, her voice a whisper in her ear – hot and hollow all at once. “How about, 'I'm so lonely and pathetic I'd rather see other people wearing my cosplays so I could pretend I filled my own life with more interesting people, because I know anyone taking a picture is interested in the character and not the person wearing it?'”

Easing back on her feet suddenly and giving Kaede a good two feet of personal space, Tsumugi proudly declared, “Me neither! Sometimes people's reasons for doing things are just plain boring. You didn't actually kill Rantaro, so I can't actually let you be executed according to the rules of the game!” She stood there, hands up, fingers splayed, with a big, stupid smile on her face. Kaede could see it struggling to reach her eyes.

Kaede's blood ran cold. Didn't kill Rantaro...? Couldn't let her be executed...? “No, I definitely... dropped the shot put...” Her eyes widened on reflex.

“Nope! _I_ hit Rantaro with a shot put ball. _You_ missed by like a foot.” Tsumugi rolled her eyes, declaring, “Of course, it's really just as well. Rantaro's the kind of guy who's better suited for other modes of play. Ultimate Survivor was a cute thought, though! Glad I put it together.” Turning away, she mumbled, “What even is an 'adventurer' these days...”

This... this was a barrage of information. Kaede took several steps back, eventually parking herself on the stepladder and sitting down. “So... you killed Rantaro, and tortured me, and put me in here... because you feel lonely and pathetic?” She took a deep breath in through her nose, closing her eyes.

“No! Sorry, but you need to actually try to keep up! I said 'me neither,' which means that it's just fiction, and if you had an emotional reaction to it that's your own fault!” Crossing her arms and puffing out her cheeks, Tsumugi explained, “I did all that to keep the game going! It'd be boring if we just... ended at the first case! That'd be missing all the thrills, chills, and kills!” Conspiratorially, she added, “And I thought your murder plan was too good to waste on not knowing how much momentum you'd lose to friction!”

“... Please, just stop,” Kaede said. Despite trying her best not to sound defeated, her words rung a little hollow in her own ears; she couldn't imagine how pathetic they sounded in Tsumugi's.

“Buy my silence! Permanently! For 8,000 Monocoins a month, I will stop.” Tsumugi's eyes met Kaede's, and she finished, “Better get slapping, Kaede! Oh... but you can't leave the room, so we can't set up the room again...” She looked bored – bored with her own joke, bored with tormenting Kaede, bored with the sound of her own voice.

Kaede's eyes narrowed a little. Something about Tsumugi's evasiveness made her more desperate to know – a feeling that well outstripped her irritation at Tsumugi's seeming nonchalance about the death of another participant. “So what are you actually planning to do here? I'm not sure I buy a lot of what you just said...” Some of it added up, but some of it didn't. A voice in the back of Kaede's head whispered about some missing piece of data, something that would've made it clear what Tsumugi was talking about.

Tsumugi brought a finger to her lips, tapping them thoughtfully as she looked at Kaede. “I plan to do nothing! You, however, have some plans to make. Check your Monopad!”

Blinking once as she realized she still had it in the first place, Kaede found the software... different. Fewer options – only two tabs. The settings tab remained, of course, but all others had been replaced with a single category: _Bargain._

Tsumugi moved over to the... elevator? Wall compartment? … it had to be an elevator, Kaede thought – no, focus! With a slightly shaky hand, Kaede tapped _Bargain._

The interface was simple enough – two columns, with the Monopad's screen only displaying one at a time without swiping over. One labeled _Tasks,_ and the other – predictably – _Rewards._ The tasks seemed simple enough, though some of them were distinctly risque; all were labeled with a number. _Request Lighting Change (30 minutes) – 50, Session with Tsumugi (30 minutes) – 100, Session with Tsumugi (90 minutes) – 500..._ She scrolled through, noting the lack of organization as she saw other tasks. _Sleep Naked (10 minutes) – 1, Live Naked (10 minutes) – 2, Cosplay (1 hour) – 50..._

“... You've got to be kidding. And – what's this about a lighting change? Is this some weird mood lighting thing?” Kaede asked, without bothering to look at the rewards in any detail just yet, turning her gaze up to Tsumugi to give her her characteristic 'I'm-not-sure-about-that' look, eyebrows quirked.

“Something like that,” Tsumugi answered. “But you should really look at the rewards first! It'll be as plain as I am what this is about once you do!”

“That's ominous,” Kaede murmured, before turning her eyes back to the pad and tabbing over. The first several rewards seemed pretty basic. _Clean Laundry (your clothes) – 15/day, Shower Access (alone) – 10/day, Shower Access (Tsumugi helps) – 3/day_ ( _yikes,_ Kaede thought to herself,) some things about food, room decorations, anime from the A/V room, Monopad games –

_Children's 37-Key Electronic – 1000. Yamaha P-45 – 3500. Steinway D-274 – 4500. Model 290 Imperial – 5000._

Kaede could feel her jaw set itself; her heart skipped a beat, and her muscles steadily tensed up, starting at her feet and traveling all the way up to her throat.

“See?” Tsumugi asked, leaning forward slightly. “I told you you'd understand! It's like any other school, Kaede – do your homework and you'll be plainly rewarded!”

Kaede desperately needed to assert some control over this moment – and found her opening, drawing up to her full height and looking Tsumugi dead-on in the eyes. “... So, did you just pick the first two top-shelf pianos you saw on a Google search or something?” she shot back, glancing down. “The Steinway is pretty standard, but I can live without the extra octave on the Imperial... I don't play a lot of transcribed organ pieces.” With a pause, she cocked her head and added, “Unless there's a complete set of Bach-Busoni Editions a little further down the rewards list here.”

Tsumugi shrank slightly backward, tucking her head slightly and pulling away with her trunk leading – the look of someone who has _definitely_ been caught. “I don't know what's worse – you not appreciating this or you not appreciating my work on your nails!” She huffed a little and scrunched up her face.

Shaking it off, Tsumugi nodded to Kaede, tapping the wall near where she had emerged. “If you've got any questions, now's the time! I have a game to observe, you know!”

Kaede looked the list over one last time, before settling on, “What are these 'session with Tsumugi' tasks? Judging from the others, I feel like if you just wanted sex, you'd have said that.”

The cosplayer's lips quirked up. “You'll have to commit to one to find out! Anything else?”

“What's stopping me from taking the elevator out of here with you?”

Tsumugi didn't flinch an inch, this time. “The gun camera inside the elevator,” she said, without much energy or humor in it. “I told you my favorite episode of Doraemon was the one with hidden cameras and target practice, didn't I?”

“... Yeah,” Kaede admitted, as Tsumugi slid into the opening elevator. As its doors slowly closed, she conceded, “You sure told me that.”

Tsumugi vanished from view, leaving Kaede alone with her Monopad and a tiny refrigerator full of extremely unpalatable gyoza. ... and, Kaede noticed, Tsumugi's tattered Kirumi cosplay.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No sex (or other sexytimes) in Chapter 1! It's all setup. Just you wait, though. We'll get there.


	2. Personal Best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede tries her first task.

After about ten minutes of staring at the ceiling and feeling the vague sense of existential dread clawing at the inside of her skull, Kaede received another dose of novelty. This one proved much less harrowing than her experience with Tsumugi.

A small, disk-like robot with arms, about the height of a small dog, popped out of one of the wall panels. Its coloration was a match for Monokuma's (of course), with the black panel obviously designed to fold inward. It scooted toward the tattered remnants of Tsumugi's Kirumi cosplay, circled it once, and began to stuff the fabric into its top compartment. Once it finished, it rolled around the room with a low whirr, eventually picking up the room's trash can, putting it on top of itself, and rolling back into the wall.

 _Is it okay that I thought that was kind of cute?_ Kaede asked herself, tapping her chin a little. Her gaze tracked to the top of the mini-fridge, noticing the mostly-empty teacup Tsumugi left behind. It sat there, unmoving. Something about its presence felt a little unnerving.

Kaede did her best to ignore it. For lack of something better to do, she turned her efforts to exercise; she started with push-ups, and worked her way through every calisthenics exercise and yoga pose she could think of until she felt exhausted.

It wasn't helping much. Boredom, after all, was part and parcel with talent, and Kaede was rapidly rediscovering the former in the absence of any kind of stimulus. Her gaze turned toward the teacup again. Maybe if she...?

Walking over toward the refrigerator, she experimentally nudged it. Nothing happened. So, naturally, she gave in to the temptation and knocked it off the refrigerator. It hit the ground, shattering into seven pieces; the bottom remained intact, with several jagged triangles on one side forming the largest breaks. Hopping back from it lest she step on a shard unthinkingly, Kaede waited.

And waited.

After about five minutes, though, her action was rewarded with what she'd suspected; the tiny vacuum robot rolled out of the wall, picking up the largest pieces with its dumb little arms and shoving them into its top. For good measure, it rolled around the area surrounding the mini-fridge once before popping back into the wall.

“Okay, so that's how _that_ works,” Kaede said to herself. “... Okay, new question – where's the bathroom...?” No sooner had she said the word, of course, than another wall panel popped out a toilet. _Really? Just... no separate room? That's how this is going to go?_ Kaede sighed, heading over to the toilet.

With _that_ taken care of, Kaede found herself again at wits' end. She could chase her own tail for a little while coming up with escape plans, but in truth, that was a non-starter and she knew it; judging from the structure of the school, it'd be _Les Adieux_ if she acted up too much. She'd just have to wait the game out... or gain Tsumugi's confidence somehow. Tsumugi had seemed a little more vulnerable than Kaede expected, for someone doing something like this; maybe she could get her to second-guess herself, or earn her pity.

For the moment, then, she'd need to play along. Flopping onto the bed, she started to make a much more detailed review of _Bargain._ She noticed a few options that hadn't caught her eye before –deliveries from the MonoMono Machine, for instance – but for the most part, she wasn't sold on too much in particular. Besides – it wasn't like she had points to _spend,_ at that. She'd need to get some.

A 'session with Tsumugi' seemed like a bad idea to start. Kaede did find herself a little curious, especially with the value set so high, and longer sessions at such a proportional premium... but something about it didn't pass her smell test. If she got a little more desperate, she'd consider it. The change in lighting, on the other hand, felt positively exorbitant for the value. It had to be a one-off, Kaede reasoned – something to give her enough points to get hooked on having them, instead of toughing it out.

… even if it was low-hanging fruit, though, Kaede did need to eat, as it were. Tentatively, she tapped the screen, indicating that she was requesting a lighting change. The Monopad helpfully explained that once queued, a lighting change would begin within five minutes, and end thirty minutes later; once it had begun, a lighting change could not be aborted manually. In the event of an abnormal reaction to a lighting change, such as seizure, _(were they strobe lights?)_ the lighting change would be halted immediately, a medical Monokub would be dispatched, and the option would be disabled...

Kaede pinched the bridge of her nose briefly, before nodding, and confirming the request. The ceiling lights flipped upward, replaced with small LED assemblies; some of the panels along the sides of the room followed suit.

The pianist decided that rather than psych herself up about the possibilities of the change, she'd just go about her business; she headed over to the fridge, pulling out another gyoza. She gave it a thoughtful look for ten seconds or so, before ultimately deciding she wasn't hungry –

– and the room shifted. The effect was at once subtler and more jarring than Kaede thought it would be; some of the LEDs emitted standard white light, while others were an irregularly-flickering pink.

“... That's it?” Kaede asked aloud, genuinely unnerved by how _boring_ it was _._ The net effect felt a little 'sci-fi porn parody' to her, but that was about it; it almost made her wonder if Tsumugi was just trying to psych her out, and genuinely meant to have her sit out the game in comfort. Shrugging, she stuck the gyoza back in the fridge. She started to walk back to her bed, a smile starting to creep across her face.

She stopped about halfway there, feeling a faint tingle in her chest – a warm feeling that felt like it swelled out from inside her, coming to rest in her nipples. It wasn't _unfamiliar_ to Kaede, of course, but the intensity and abruptness of her arousal caught her off guard.

Of – of course, she'd be a little worked up, Kaede convinced herself. That skintight swimsuit of Tsumugi's was nice – the relief of being alive needed some kind of outlet – she was just bored and looking for something to do... the procession of justifications continued for a few seconds, as Kaede backed herself up to the wall, starting to hike up her skirt and tug down her panties.

She'd just – attend to this, and then, that'd be that! Her head would clear up, and she'd be able to think about getting off – out. Getting _out._ One hand started to gently tease at her folds, while the other took a little of the weight of her body off of her legs and back, bracing against the wall.

Kaede gave her clitoral hood a gentle nudge, pushing the tissue away and exposing the glans clitoris itself. Putting those deft pianist's fingers to work, she started to rub at it gently; occasionally she ran her fingers along her folds.

The feeling wasn't quite like normal; the tingly sensation in her head felt like it was starting early, and the matching feeling in her skin wasn't there at _all._ Her knees felt a little weak, besides; she could feel her whole body practically throbbing.

“Fffuu-UUUHhh,” she groaned, feeling her back sliding down the wall; rather than risk falling by accident, she let herself continue to slide down, eyes fluttering shut as she sprawled against the wall. After a moment, the tingling in her brain subsided – only to come flooding back when she opened her eyes again.

Letting her mouth hang open, Kaede stared ahead, her motions becoming more desperate. She was starting to lose her sense of time – as she listened to her moist fingers sliding against skin, the pianist realized she had no idea how long it had been since she started. A minute? Five? _Like it matters,_ she thought to herself.

The arm that had braced her against the wall now free in her new position on the floor, Kaede brought a hand up to her breast, starting to squeeze a nipple. She narrowed her focus a little, trying to pay attention to that feeling rather than the one down below; she couldn't quite get herself to her peak, so maybe she needed to take more... comprehensive care of herself? Her fingers experimentally played with one nipple, then the other, while the other fingers continued to maintain her arousal down below with firm rubbing.

After what felt like an eternity of not quite being able to finish herself off, Kaede rolled onto her side. Her brain felt like it was wrapped in cotton candy filled with Pop Rocks – a vivid, pink sensation somehow squeezing down without feeling crushing. As her thumb slid over her clit for what could've been the fiftieth or five thousandth time, at last, she felt herself reach a climax.

It wasn't even the first time since the start of the game that she'd finished herself off, of course; almost everyone in the game had had _something_ to offer Kaede's fantasies, and she'd needed to blow off some stress the second night. This felt different, though – her pussy ached, her nipples tingled... it was like she'd managed all the best and most intense feelings she'd gotten from every orgasm she'd ever had at once, and brought them all just a little bit further.

While before she'd moaned, at this point an onlooker might best describe her sounds as speaking in tongues, with the occasional whimper. Her hips twitched, and her head lolled back, feeling like it had dragged the rest of her body with it from lying on her side to lying on her back.

She stared up vacantly at the flickering pink LEDs, head lolling to the side again, a little drool escaping. As she stared, she could feel faint aftershocks of that amazing climax pulse through her body, press in on her mind – as if the Pop Rocks in that cotton-candy brain of hers were slowly melting away, finding new bubbles inside themselves to pop.

She had absolutely no idea how long had passed when, at last, the lights flickered off; one by one, the panels on the sides and ceiling of the room flipped back around, leaving Kaede in a normally-lit room. The fuzzy feeling in her brain didn't recede immediately, but slowly tapered off; after what could only have been another minute or two at most, Kaede pried herself off the floor, slow and sure. Her knees wobbled; this time, she _really_ needed to brace herself against the wall.

“Ooohhhh... oh, wow,” she mumbled, trying to find the words for that experience. “So... okay, that's, what, a lighting... oh, God.” With the lights out, of course, it wasn't hard to process what had just happened to her; the lights had hijacked some part of her brain, filling her with the urge to touch herself.

 _… Okay, honestly, that technology is amazing. I mean, this is definitely on the weird end of things to do with it, but... that wasn't bad at all._ Kaede found her thoughts pulled in two directions – she could recognize that that felt amazing, _and_ that it was probably a trap of a different sort than she'd originally guessed. … well, lesson learned, she told herself, taking a few breaths to mentally steady herself. At the very least, she could make it to the piano without any part of the journey being _unpleasant._

Her gaze turned down to her skirt, pulling herself to some more concrete element of the situation; it was... well, 'damp' would be a very gentle, euphemistic way of describing it. The panties she hadn't bothered to remove were in an even wetter state; with a slightly embarrassed expression, Kaede pulled them off.

As the awkward look on her face deepened, she glanced around and tried, experimentally, “... Laundry basket? Hamper? Clothes?” When nothing popped out of the wall, she let out a small sigh, and dropped the panties on the ground. With a grimace, she decided to ditch the skirt, too – she couldn't let herself just... stew in her own very literal juices. The panties hit the ground with a damp 'thwock' sound; the skirt wasn't _quite_ wet enough for that, landing with a gentler rustle.

Looking down at herself, Kaede returned to her bed, flipping open the Monopad again. Sure enough, her account had been credited 50 'points.' Glancing down at her state of partial undress, she considered her situation thoughtfully... and tapped _Live Naked (10 minutes)._ As before, a message popped up.

This task, it explained, would be automatically credited so long as the criteria were met. Time spent with more than 30 consecutive seconds with the eyes shut and moving less than five feet in any direction from the starting point would be credited as sleeping naked, regardless of entry to REM sleep. It also explained the criteria for nudity; so long as both breasts and the entire pelvic region were exposed, Kaede would receive full credit.

The next page of the pop-up message gave helpful visual aids for the previous instructions, using a pink silhouette in white clothing. An outfit consisting of gloves, stockings, and an underbust corset would satisfy the criteria, for instance; an outfit consisting entirely of crotchless panties would not; a blouse worn totally open with no other clothing would count, provided the cameras could regularly visually confirm nipples.

 _That's... alarmingly detailed. Then again, leave it to the Ultimate Cosplayer to be fussy about clothes..._ Kaede reflected. With a small shrug, she pulled off her vest layer first, then quickly shucked the shirt. “... Here we go,” she mumbled to herself, reaching behind herself to unhook her bra. She decided to leave the stockings and shoes, after a moment's thought; they didn't count, and wearing _something_ made her feel less ridiculous.

Something on the Monopad changed from grey to pink; when Kaede looked down at it, she noticed a timer ticking up on the 'Live Naked' task. Experimentally, she decided to try lying down in bed, closing her eyes for a little while, not long after.

After what couldn't have been more than two minutes, she took a peek at the screen, which helpfully indicated she'd been credited for 55 seconds of sleeping naked and 44 seconds of living naked. … 45, 46, 47...

 _So it does keep track of partial credit,_ Kaede reflected to herself. _I'm surprised she's that generous._ With some of the rules of her new game now tested rigorously, she took a moment to rehydrate with a little more of the fake alcohol in the fridge (which, of course, she still hated), breathe, and eventually find a way to kill a little time. She settled for trying to compose a new piece in her head; it'd be a good way to keep sane – and motivate herself toward that piano...

 


	3. Blind Run

After reaching the limit of piano score she could safely lock away in her head with no pen or paper, Kaede put a little time into experimenting with what the program considered to 'count' as nudity; she was caught a little off guard when it was willing to accept her as nude even underneath bedsheets, but smart enough to recognize fashioning the bedsheets into a dress as cheating.

 _Okay,_ Kaede thought, _that's impressive. I mean, that's also extremely fucked up that it's that smart, but I have to give her credit for thoroughness._ That led her thoughts down another rabbit hole, though: _did Tsumugi plan this from the start?_ The level of detail seemed to indicate that she'd at least mentally gamed out the idea of _someone_ needing to be taken off the board and kept as her weird sex captive, or... _something,_ from before she even started the killing game. How smart was Tsumugi, then? How capable of planning?

… The thought mostly gave Kaede a headache. It made her miss Shuichi more than a little bit, too. She didn't doubt for a second he'd be able to make sense of all this; it made her feel a little more isolated, a little more worried.

As if on cue, her tiny, disc-shaped robot friend popped out of the wall, ambling along the floor and looking for anything dirty. “Oh, hey, little guy,” Kaede called to it, as she fussed with the bedsheets, trying to get them back on the bed in at least some semblance of order after her bedsheet dress experiment. “I don't know why you're here,” she added, taking a few seconds to fluff her pillow.

The little disc's arms started whirring to life. Kaede didn't think much of it –

– until it started gathering up her discarded clothes. It had already taken her skirt and underwear by the time she noticed what it was doing; she called out, “Hey! Hey, hold on! That's not floor garbage!” Kaede shouted at it, but it was to no avail; she scrambled for her discarded shirt and vest, but the robot proved too quick, too determined. It did one last round of the room, which Kaede elected not to interfere with, before returning into the walls.

“You're on thin ice, Monoroomba,” Kaede called after it, with a huff. _Is its name Monoroomba? Well, it is now._

Looking down at herself, Kaede realized that, most likely, she was now _committed_ to nudity – or more accurately, stuck with it. There was no way, with the mention of clean laundry as a priced incentive, that Tsumugi was going to just give those back. If she wanted clothes, she was going to have to pay... and if she wanted clothes _and_ a piano, she was going to have to pick up the pace.

She could do that in a big way if she indulged Tsumugi's weird cosplay thing, of course; that was a big moneymaker, much more so than nudity. Far and away the fastest, though, would be signing up for these nebulous 'sessions.' Kaede let out a short, gusty sigh, trotted back to her bed, and started fussing with her Monopad again. With a little bit of trepidation, she tapped the button for a ninety-minute session.

Just like Tsumugi herself, the button proved... evasive, about what exactly constituted a 'session.' It did, however, explain that she was expected to comply with all of Tsumugi's directions during the session, and that she would also be credited for any cosplay involved, in the event of overlap. _Kind of thinking she was lying... this definitely sounds like a sex thing. No real way to find out except to try it, though... if I want clean clothes, a piano,_ and _something other than nasty gyoza to eat..._

It wasn't that she couldn't see the wires. Kaede knew full well that she was letting herself be led into a trap; you incentivize the kinds of behavior you want to see, and Tsumugi had attached lavish incentives to cosplay, to 'sessions,' to lighting changes that _somehow_ forced Kaede to rock her own world with boundless enthusiasm. She'd even provided less appealing alternatives.

… but she'd also managed to make the incentives so strong and Kaede's new world so empty that Kaede felt like she _needed_ to walk into the trap simply to avoid snapping a rung of the stepladder off and using it to scratch a symphony into the walls. Being able to see the trap for what it was only made it easier to convince herself to do it.

So, naturally, she confirmed the session request.

Nothing happened.

Kaede flopped back onto the bed with a faint, irritated groan. It wasn't that she expected Tsumugi to just teleport into the room, but she expected _something._ Confirmation of what a session was, perhaps, now that she'd signed up, or some way to prepare herself. The Monopad buzzed as she turned over on her side, and she promptly turned back to face it and pick it up again.

It explained that the session had been scheduled for five hours, thirty-seven minutes, and twenty-two seconds from the present time, and that Kaede would receive further information at that time.

“Good enough,” she mumbled to herself. She settled in for what was likely to be a fitful nap. _My sleep schedule's going to be a mess if this keeps up... I gotta find something to keep myself occupied,_ she thought, as she drifted.

 

She woke to Tsumugi standing over her, a pleasant smile on her face. Kaede immediately startled to full wakefulness, tugging the covers over her chest. “Nngh... Don't _do_ that!” she half-demanded, putting a hand to her head and trying to shake the last clinging tendrils of sleep from her brain.

The initial shock of waking up being stared at started to wear off, and Kaede looked at Tsumugi a little more closely. Tsumugi's eyes seemed a little more attentive than when they'd talked last... and a little more teal, a little less blue, somehow. Was it just the light? Or maybe being dressed in her usual clothes again, instead of that ridiculous Kirumi cosplay...

Tsumugi sat herself down on Kaede's bed, with a small smile. “I wasn't expecting you to choose a session quite so soon! I'm really excited, but I'm a little nervous, too,” she said, acting as if this were totally normal, as if Kaede weren't her captive.

“... I want to know what this is about. With most of the others, I could guess, but you... what are you after here? What did I sign up for?” She took a breath in, and released it slowly, gently, through her nose.

Tsumugi didn't miss a beat. “It'd be just plain rude of me not to tell you! And, um, impossible, actually, to do it, if I didn't.” She let tension build between them, though only for a few moments, before explaining, “I'm going to hypnotize you! It's the one thing I'm into that we can actually do. Body swapping would've been really difficult to implement, and a step-sibling kind of thing would be just plain impossible to set up to the point where we both buy into it... oh, and...” Tsumugi rattled off a few more kinks, but Kaede's brain half tuned her out, still stuck on the actual answer.

“You're not going to hypnotize me,” Kaede protested, though it sounded pretty hollow even to her; after all, she'd agreed to a session. Come to think, this _did_ feel like exactly the sort of thing you'd apply 'session' to...

“Then I guess I'll take my one-seventh of a Steinway piano and be off,” Tsumugi replied, flipping her hair nonchalantly. “And the new incentives I was going to debut, too...”

Kaede made a faint noise, as if she'd stepped on a Lego – which honestly wasn't far off from the way she felt. “... Okay, okay, fine,” she conceded. “Can I at least ask what you're going to do? Or... why?”

Tsumugi yet again raised a finger in that almost teacher-like, lecturing way Kaede had rapidly come to expect even _before_ becoming her captive. “I'm not going to answer the first question... but because you've been so good, I'll answer the second!” She turned to Kaede, clasping her hands with a soft but firm grip. “You... are the best source of moe energy available! Really, the only one I have access to until we build up to some more labs! And I want to unlock your full potential! It's a good thing I don't have to fuse with an old witch or a gross purple man to do it...” She paused, hugging herself. “... Or maybe I _am_ the old witch... no, that's too scary! That's cursed, just like me! I won't allow it!”

Kaede leaned back an inch or two, grimacing a little as Tsumugi, for at least the second time in a few days, talked herself into her own head. … or had she? She made it so difficult to get a read on her; it was like there were two Tsumugis – one plain, modest, buried under self-deprecation and references to anime... and one more vibrant, more alive, more authentic – and yet somehow emptier, hollowed-out, more _bored_ than _boring._ Right now, Kaede felt she was dealing with the former – that the self-consciousness was an act, somehow, even if there was a kernel of truth in it. Trying to dive deeper made her head spin a little.

That realization emboldened Kaede a little, and got her to ask something. “Hey, Tsumugi,” she started, looking her over. “... Can I _watch_ the killing game? Even if I can't participate anymore, I'm still... interested...”

Tsumugi's posture shifted a little; her back straightened out, and when her eyes met Kaede's, sure enough, that strange mix of vibrant enthusiasm and total exhaustion had found them again. “You want to watch? … Maybe, but let's get this out of the way, first, okay?” she replied, taking a moment to glance away and fumble in her uniform jacket. When she turned back to Kaede, she'd retrieved a pendulum with a bright red stone in the shape of Monokuma's eye – and her expression was back to that careful, measured one she'd started with. _Okay, no, I'm definitely right,_ Kaede thought. _There's something up with her._

Not that she had time to think about it. Tsumugi drew back to her full height, moving in front of Kaede again and dangling the pendant in front of her eyes. “Okay, Kaede. Make sure you're comfortable. You've seen this kind of thing before, right?”

Kaede gave a firm nod, starting to watch it. After a few moments, though, her gaze turned up toward Tsumugi's face. There was a sort of focus there that caught the pianist off guard – and got her to giggle a little bit.

While Tsumugi didn't miss a beat, she _did_ ask, with a little sharpness, “Is – is this funny to you?” Her lips pushed together into a thin, flat line. “I'm working plainly hard! The least you could do is play along!” she huffed, after a moment.

“No, it's just – you're... it's like you're focused and not, at the same time. You look...” She groped for the words, trying to think it through for a few seconds. Her eyes didn't leave the swaying red pendant, though. “It's kind of like when I saw you in the hallway, but not... zoning out as much?”

Tsumugi blinked a few times – then shook her head. “... This isn't what we're talking about!” she insisted, taking a breath. “Anyway – as I was saying, it's sort of like using a metronome. That's familiar, right?” Kaede gave her a nod, blinking once. “Not that there's any sound, though if you listen really closely you might hear the chain of the pendant a little – but more that it's about matching your rhythm to its.”

That much made sense to Kaede, at least. She nodded again, starting to track the pendant a little more earnestly; she'd expected the rhythm to be less regular, somehow. _I guess this isn't that weird,_ she reflected to herself.

Tsumugi continued, “And once you match your rhythm to mine, that's the first step completed. You want your points, right? And you're already matching your rhythm to the red jewel in front of you. So you want to go into trance, and it's plain to see you're taking steps, too.”

Laid out like that, it was hard for Kaede to disagree. After just long enough for Kaede to start putting that thought together, Tsumugi spoke up again. “So now that you're watching the pendant, and you're taking steps toward going into trance, I need you to let all the tension out of your body. It's okay to let your arms droop a little. It's okay to let the tension flow out of your shoulders. You might even feel your neck just plain slump forward.”

As Kaede did just that, letting as much of the tension she'd been carrying in her shoulders and neck since waking up here fall away, she thought she heard Tsumugi say something else. _Wait, did I imagine –_ She blinked once, then again, trying to focus back up. “... just like the metronome. Once you're playing, you're not thinking about it.”

“I'm not thinking about...” _What? What wasn't she thinking about?_ She tried to raise a hand to her head, but her arms felt limp, noodle-like. Tsumugi gently shushed her, and that was the end of that effort, anyway.

“You're not thinking,” Tsumugi said, softly. “And now that you're not thinking, you're ready –“ Tsumugi followed up with something else, but it was a little difficult for Kaede to focus on; with her head tilted forward, she had to roll her eyes up a fair ways to keep watching the red stone before her, and that already took...

… a lot...

… of effort...

Kaede was only aware of the sensation of being plunged into warm water, but without the physicality of that sensation. It was the first time she'd felt that way since... well, certainly before the killing game started. Maybe weeks? Months? What was time?

Trying to place the feeling felt slippery in and of itself; if the feeling itself was a bath, this was like trying to grab the soap she'd dropped in it. She could feel herself drawing up to her full height, standing perfectly neutral, but it didn't diminish how lost in the feeling she was.

She heard something. It sounded true, so she nodded, and said “Yes.”

She heard something. It sounded important, so she nodded, and said, “I understand.”

She heard something. It reminded her she needed to be pliant, so she let a little extra tension out of her shoulders. She felt something slide over her, and opened her mouth to ask what it was, but then she realized that wasn't important.

She heard something. It lasted a long time, as she felt her hair shift, her posture change. Something slid across her lips. Something in what she heard made her mouth and nose scrunch up reflexively... but after she heard it a second time, a third, a fourth, it didn't seem so bad. She sank back into that warm, content feeling without complaint.

She felt hands slide over her chest, and leaned back. She'd been told to do that, she thought, distantly, as she felt her head come to rest on something soft. She could feel fabric against her nipples, and it felt so nice...

She stayed there for a while. She needed to stay there to forget, and she needed to forget, so she needed to stay there.

With a low groan, Tsumugi's captive sat up. When had she laid down, at that? “... Okay, I have to admit that that felt good,” she started, with a slightly chagrined smile. “But... what did you _do,_ exactly? I remember... pretty much nothing,” she admitted, that smile quickly becoming a full-on nervous laugh.

Putting an arm around her, Tsumugi said, “Nothing you won't like! I just figured I'd...” Tapping her chin twice and then raising the finger ahead of her, she settled for, “... make the contrast between us a little plainer!” Tsumugi led her over to a wall, and firmly demanded, “Mirror.” As it popped out of the wall, she asked, “What do you think?”

“Well, for one, it's good to have clothes again,” she answered, looking herself in the mirror. Everything looked right – dark sleeveless turtleneck bodysuit, red button-up leather vest, red leather skirt, garter belts, tall stockings... matching white and red jacket... All perfectly normal clothing for her, she concluded. “I'm kind of surprised you let me have this... I was _really_ sure you were gonna let me just go naked until I spent points on clothes.”

“I was going to, but I thought I'd reward you for accepting a session! And a long one, too,” Tsumugi admitted. “This way is plain better for you on every axis! Cosplay gets you so many more points, doesn't it, Miss Browning?”

“Yeah it does,” Miss Browning agreed, nodding along with her captor. “Wait – cosplay?” Her brain hung up on that for a second; she was wearing what she always wore... wasn't she? Then again, should she really look a gift horse in the mouth?

“You shouldn't worry about it,” Tsumugi said, her tone a little chiding. “Why don't you get something to eat, instead, Excellen?” That much actually did sound like a good idea; Excellen headed to the fridge, poking around a little.

“I still think you stocked this for _you,_ you know,” the blonde shot back, taking a can of alcohol-free alcohol and cracking it open. Taking a long drink, she admitted, “It just doesn't taste right... it's close, though! Not bad!”

It was mid-way through another sip that Tsumugi abruptly said... something. Kaede didn't know what it was. For a split second, the taste on her tongue was both mostly pleasant and mostly unpleasant, somehow – a disorienting sensation that had her swallow on reflex, then bring a hand to her head as Tsumugi started giggling.

After a few seconds' thought, Kaede gave Tsumugi a squinting stare. “... Isn't this a bad idea on your end? Making me like all the nasty food you like makes it harder to motivate me to spend points on food, giving me clothes – even cosplay – makes it harder to motivate me to spend points on that...” Her brow tightened.

“If you're not acting even a _little_ like the character, what's the point of a session?” came Tsumugi's near-immediate answer, and somehow Kaede felt like an idiot for not immediately picking up on it. “I think the look fits you just right, though!”

Heading back to the mirror she'd looked into a few moments ago, she gave herself a once-over. The makeup was a little much – bright red lips, a hint of eyeshadow... actually, this was a lot of makeup, on closer inspection. Not noticing the look or feel without close attention had her a little surprised. Perhaps sensing that, Tsumugi let herself smile a little wider, a little more self-assuredly.

Or maybe it wasn't that that had her doing that. As Kaede tried to figure out what it was that she felt about this – about the look, about being trapped here, about... any of it – Tsumugi crept up behind her, still smiling. Placing one hand on Kaede's shoulder, the blue-haired girl whispered, “... You know it's only been twenty-three minutes, don't you?” Another moment passed, and Tsumugi asked, quietly, “Don't get me wrong, I love you – but does that mean I have to meet your father?”

Kaede felt the world spin slightly and fall away – and felt herself slump back into Tsumugi's waiting arms.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsumugi Shirogane cannot be trusted with anything under any circumstances.


End file.
